Covid-19: Minister Motshekga outlines new school calendar
Minister Angie Motshekga announced that the new school year will begin on 25 January 2021.
The Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga hosted a briefing on 1 October to give an update on key developments in the basic education sector relating to the Covid-19 Level 1 restrictions.
Motshekga said that they are encouraged to see all that schools have done to ensure that learners are safe, however, they are concerned about the number of children who aren’t attending school and cannot be accounted for. “The fact that schools are not operating normally at the moment also creates lots of delinquency among learners. The rotation approach which schools are using means there are designated days when learners are not at school and other days when they are at school. This increases the risk of delinquency and them losing interest in the curriculum and forget critical topics already learned.”
She said that the department is embarking on a reading campaign to keep learners engaged and there has been an opportunity for learners to attend Saturday and Sunday classes. Motshekga added that with so many days of school missed, they are concerned about long-term learning losses and an increase in the inequality in learning outcomes.
She highlighted that it is important that parents and families work with teachers to help close those learning gaps. She expressed her appreciation for all the teachers who have worked hard during the pandemic to ensure that children can continue to learn. She said that October marks the start of Teacher Appreciation Month to celebrate these teachers and pay tribute to teachers who have lost their lives during the pandemic.
Motshekga acknowledged that there were huge challenges with school nutrition programmes. School feeding programmes continued to provide meals for learners throughout the lockdown but very few children came to collect their meals. However, the department has now seen an increase in the number of learners collecting meals. “The opening of schools has helped ensure that learners are receiving much-needed meals.”
There have been some disturbing incidents of school violence and bullying. Motshekga said that it has been troubling to see an increase in contact violence among learners. “We are reviving our school safety management structures… we’re working with school governing bodies to immediately deal with bullying and violence among learners.”
The revised school calendar
Motshekga said that schools would reopen on 25 January next year and the school calendar will be gazetted tomorrow (2 October) after which it will be made publicly available. “We have done our best to accommodate the interests of everybody but our priority has been the learner.”
She said that some of the curricula will be carried over to next year. The June National Senior Certificate exams will be combined with the November exams and will commence in November instead of October as originally planned. She said that this would allow teachers additional time to cover essential topics before the exams. She said that there would be over one million children writing these exams, which is the biggest group of learners they have ever had.
With the delayed exams, Motshekga said that the results of the exams would only be announced in the new year. With just over a month to go before learners begin their exams, Motshekga encouraged parents and teachers to rally around these learners to help them prepare for these exams.
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